Divorced woman with child travels through time

"Who is this Lady Qinglan?" Brother Nie couldn't help but ask.

Qi Lue poured himself a cup of tea and said, "That's no ordinary woman. I heard that she was the top disciple of the Emei Sect back then, exceptionally talented and with extremely high swordsmanship. For some reason, she rebelled and gathered about ten women to form her own sect. It was initially called the Qinglan Sect, revered for its orchids, and decorated swords and clothing with orchids. In the last two or three years, for some reason, her personality suddenly changed. She started working exclusively for noblewomen, engaging in shady dealings. Because of her extremely high martial arts skills and the exceptional talent and aptitude of the women she recruited, she had a good reputation. Ordinary people couldn't do anything to them, and they couldn't find a place to retaliate. She was a ruthless character."

"What should we do? What about the mistress of the house?" Brother Nie was extremely worried.

"We're no match for them. Let's wait for Erniu to come back before making a decision." Qi Lue sighed, helpless. Brother Nie had no choice but to return to Wangjiazhuang. After learning that Wang Xiaoming had brought back information, he was even more helpless and waited anxiously.

Halfway down the mountainside deep in Yunlei Mountain, Wang Hanyang met up with Wang Erniu and couldn't help but tease him, "Second Brother, what made you decide to come here to suppress bandits?"

Wang Erniu chuckled and said, "You don't know? Of course, it's also a chance to get revenge. These guys tried to mess with our village in previous years. If we hadn't taken precautions, so many people in the village would have suffered. Now that we have the chance, we naturally want to kick them when they're down and get back at them. Otherwise, do they really think we country folk are easy to bully?"

Wang Hanyang nodded in agreement, "That makes sense, Second Brother did the right thing."

Wang Erniu asked, "How are the hidden branches on the mountainside doing?"

Wang Hanyang said seriously, "It's still the same, just with more sentries than in previous years. The layout hasn't changed. It seems they still don't know that we scouted them out once before and know their strength. What's it like on the mountaintop?"

Wang Erniu also said, "It's the same old acquaintances, hopeless. If the court weren't so incompetent, they wouldn't be hard to take down. And judging from their appearance, their meals have improved considerably. They must have saved up a lot of silver; they're likely to make a fortune this time."

"That's great!" Lü Xiong laughed. "Second Brother, can we keep some for ourselves?"

Wang Erniu laughed and said, "Of course we can. We're here to work for them, not to help them get promoted and make a fortune."

The group exchanged glances and smiled knowingly, everything understood without a word.

Wang Erniu looked around and, seeing no one was around, lowered his voice and asked, "How's it going? How are the talks with the people joining?"

Wang Hanyang whispered, "I've recruited about ten of them, all new recruits from good families. They're usable, absolutely no problem."

Lu Xiong liked people with high martial arts skills, so he said, "I don't know many people, only three or four, but they are all extremely skilled in martial arts and have decent character."

Wang Xiaoguang said, "I've talked to about twenty of them, all of whom are from poor families and are willing to follow us."

Wang Hanyang was greatly surprised, and patted him on the shoulder with a smile, saying, "Not bad, Xiaoguang, I didn't expect you to be such a promising strategist. You're really good at this."

Wang Erniu patted his partner's shoulder and said with a delighted smile, "That's really good, Xiaoguang. From now on, I'll entrust you with the important task of developing this partnership."

Wang Xiaogang scratched his head and grinned, "Hehe, not at all, it's just a matter of spending money. But he should be a good person, mainly because he's poor."

Wang Erniu nodded and said, "Money is not a problem. This time we can give it away for free to the people below. But these people must be of good character. We absolutely cannot take those who kill and rob. These soldiers are the foundation for the future, and we must build a solid base."

Several people deeply agreed with this sentiment. Since Wang Erniu had voluntarily joined the cause, he couldn't do without soldiers. However, Yang Shouzhen's own private army couldn't be allocated to him, so he agreed to let him recruit his own troops. Therefore, during this period of free time, they each went to recruit new soldiers, and some were transferred from the recruit training center. Chen Wenfang gave Wang Erniu 30,000 taels of silver this time, half of her savings, which was a great support to him. After Wang Hanyang and the others found out, they respected Chen Wenfang even more. Where could they find such a good sister-in-law?

"Uncle, they're coming..." Chu Yi and Da Zhuang were on guard, and soon Chu Yi skipped over them to inform them.

"Let's go!" Wang Erniu led the way towards Yang Shouzhen.

"Greetings, General..." In fact, Yang Shouzhen was just a subordinate general. Wang Erniu was secretly pleased to see a subordinate address him in this way, and then he addressed him in this way every time.

Sure enough, as soon as Wang Erniu called out, Yang Shouzhen immediately beamed with joy. "Erniu, please get up quickly. How is the situation up there?"

"Reporting to the general, there are about forty bandits on the mountain, and fifteen others are scouting on the mountainside. They are all petty thieves and scoundrels. I have fought with them before, but they are just amateurs and were easily dealt with. You don't need to worry, sir. There are also more than thirty people who went to Willow Town to collect goods and have not yet returned. I believe that they will be fine if Lord Yang keeps an eye on them."

Young Master Yang is Yang Chengtian, the nephew of Yang Shouzhen. He is also a good-for-nothing who drinks and eats nothing. He said he was going to keep an eye on people in Liushu Town, which is only two days away. In reality, he just sent two people to check on things while he stayed home and did nothing.

Yang Shouzhen had many concubines, but unfortunately, he only had daughters and no sons. He was very fond of this nephew and wanted to get a bigger share of the pie by bringing him along. Wang Erniu knew this perfectly well, but he just didn't say it on his face.

"Haha, that's great! But I wonder if the bandits up there have enough provisions?" Yang Shouzhen asked anxiously.

Wang Erniu knew that what he really wanted to ask was whether the people above had robbed a lot of silver, but he couldn't ask openly.

Wang Erniu replied, "There must be quite a lot. When we first captured the bandit leader, one of his men confessed that they had spent over ten thousand taels of silver just to bribe them to rob our people. Moreover, they frequently went down the mountain to rob. This road is already infamous for miles around, and ordinary merchants dare not travel on it. They must have stolen a lot of grain."

"Haha, that's great. Come on, let's go up the mountain and deal with them." Yang Shouzhen was very satisfied. He knew his men well. They were good at fighting and bullying the weak, but few of them could really fight. Otherwise, why would he have chosen Wang Erniu at first glance? He had a good build with those muscles. The men he brought were also lean and fit. He was very pleased with them. But they weren't his own people after all, so he had to do something to show his loyalty.

Yang Shouzhen sighed and led his men up the mountain. Wang Erniu and his men had selected a few new recruits to bring along for practice, and now they were leading the way. They quickly dealt with the sentries, tied them up, checked their pockets, and tossed them aside.